Tag Archives: Facebook Marketing

How To Use Facebook Live Video

How To Use Facebook Live Video

How To Use Facebook Live Video

Facebook Live video is an exciting new way to promote your business.

The concept is very basic, but the results are powerful. At the tap of your finger, you now have the ability to create live video content within a Facebook post on a Page, Group, or personal profile.

Your audience will embrace the opportunity to engage with your brand in a new way. They’ll share in the excitement created by spontaneous streaming content. It should also come as no surprise that Facebook is favoring live video within their platform as well, so expect your Facebook Live sessions to appear prominently in your audience’s home feed and get the best reach of any post type on your Facebook Page.

The feature first rolled out in August of 2015 to a very warm reception. Ushered in by celebrities and big brands, the new feature quickly earned the favor of users. All it takes is a creative jolt, an interesting topic, and you’re off to the races!

What’s better is the fact that Facebook will actually send push notifications as well as news feed alerts to fans of your page when you begin a live-streaming session.

What are some Facebook Live best practices?

Before you use the new live feature, get your bearings with the new interface and test your ability to come up spur of the moment content, with no chance to edit what goes out. After you get your footing, it’s time to try some advanced moves.

Here are some exciting Facebook Live video strategies you might want to try:

  • Two people on screen

    While you might be quite the charismatic ham when it comes to creating video content, your audience will appreciate different faces in the stream. You could be holding the camera while another team member demonstrates a product, or answers interview questions.

  • The tour

    Motion is an extremely compelling component of any piece of video content, and Facebook Live video sessions are no exception. If you have an office or a brick-and-mortar, the Facebook Live walking tour is a great way to provide your audience a behind-the-scenes all-access peek at your operations or to sell real-time value.

  • Demonstrate a process

    If your audience is truly interested in what it is that makes your business or brand unique, they’re going to want to see the world from your point of view. Perhaps you’re a chef — what better way to share some live moments with your fans than to go live on Facebook while you prepare that delectable dish?

  • Schedule and inform

    You’ll get an audience if you decide to go live, off the cuff. That said, Facebook recommends you let your audience know at somewhat in advance when you plan to launch your next live video session. That way, they’ll be sure to have set aside the time to tune in.

  • Be mindful of signal strength

    This tip is purely technical, but it is also vitally important. If you don’t have a strong 4G or WiFi connection, Facebook will actually prevent you from even using the live feature. Especially in cases where you’ve advertised in advance that you’re going to be going live at a certain time, you want to make sure that you’re able to fulfill the promise to your audience.

What else do you need to know about Facebook Live Video?

  • Once you go live on Facebook, you’ll be able to see which users are joining you as viewers in your live broadcast. They’ll be able to share responses such as likes, hearts, wow faces and more. Be sure to greet viewers by name and thank them for joining in.
  • In addition to being aware of who is in your Facebook Live audience, you’ll also be able to see their comments alongside your video, in real time. This means that Facebook Live creates an excellent opportunity to host a live Q & A session. Interaction and authentic content are what Facebook users are known to crave most.
  • When your viewers enter one of your live sessions, they’ll see the option to subscribe to your future live feeds. Encourage this action and it will lead to bigger and bigger audience sizes as you continue to offer live content.
  • It doesn’t matter whether you orient your device vertically or horizontally. Facebook’s Live video interface is designed to use a square video, allowing your audience to view your content either in portrait or landscape, regardless of which orientation you choose when creating the content.

The Facebook Live feature is making a big splash. Take advantage of it and set your brand apart from competitors who are missing this great time to shine.

Taken from my article “How Should You Use Facebook Live Video?” on MaximizeSocialBusiness.com

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How to Get More Engagement Using Facebook Ads

How to Get More Engagement Using Facebook Ads - 315

How to Get More Engagement Using Facebook Ads - 315With the instant access to the Internet and the millions of people on social media daily, Facebook is the leading social platform to advertise on. Well-planned Facebook ad campaigns are reasonably priced, and can be very effective at increasing website traffic, engaging visitors, and ultimately, generating greater sales.

Here are some tips on how to get the most out of a Facebook ad campaign.

Know the Target Audience

When you know who your target audience is, and write specifically for them, you’ll increase your audience.

  • Geographic location
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Income
  • Homeowners or renters
  • Computer or mobile user

A Facebook ad must be valuable to the users online at the time the ad appears. By knowing the time your target audience is online, you’ll be able to time your ads to attract the most eyeballs and grow sales.

Optimize your Business Page

An unclear, outdated business Facebook page won’t grab clients’ attention. Make sure your company page is welcoming and provides regular postings to generate interest.

  • Use short, easy-to-read sentences which clearly describe products, or create memorable branding messages.
  • Add tempting photos of your products, or photos which communicate your brand message.
  • Post daily content that your customers will value. This content should be a mix of information about your business and products, along with content you curate from similar businesses.
  • Use hashtags so search engines can easily find your posts, and searchers looking for hashtags can find your Facebook page.
  • Quickly address users’ complaints or concerns about products or services to demonstrate legitimate caring and concern.

Optimizing your Facebook Ads

Once the company Facebook page has been optimized, you can develop ads to increase engagement and interest.

Using Facebook ads options you can specify where news feeds should appear, and optimize your ad for mobile devices. It’s essential to grab attention within seconds and to design a mobile-friendly ad for best viewing.

Use Bright Colors, Photographs, and Cartoons to Capture Attention

To quickly attract attention, Facebook ads must be highly visual. Without this visual, attention-grabbing material, an ad probably won’t capture much attention.

Images should be sharp and mobile-friendly, they should contain bright colors, and should convey the emotion of your ad message at a glance.

Include a Value Proposition

Tell readers why they should click on your ad. Wording needs to give clear, concise reasons to click for more information.

Your ad should be believable. A coupon or discount is a more compelling reason to click than “world’s greatest”.

Explain why your product or service is better than comparable products and services. False or misleading information can harm your company’s reputation.

Comments and complaints spread quickly. Reinforcing an ad message on your website and Facebook page will reinforce your credibility.

A Call to Action is a Must-Have

You must have a compelling call to action because it significantly increases engagement. Some ideas to include are:

  • Offering a discount to first-time customers
  • Offer a free product or service, linked to purchase of another item
  • Include an end date to convey urgency

Monitoring and analyzing the success of an ad campaign is essential to increase engagement activity. Facebook offers very precise metrics for this purpose, so tracking engagement on your company page is easy.

By making use of this information, campaign ads can be tweaked to increase engagement. With the right strategies and content, Facebook ads can enhance your page’s activity with quality engagement.

Save

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10 Tips to Boost Your Facebook Shares

10 Tips to Boost Your Facebook Shares 315

10 Tips to Boost Your Facebook Shares 315

Are you frustrated with your Facebook page engagement results? Most small business owners are scratching their heads, wondering what to do to improve engagement on their Facebook pages.

If your page has thousands of followers but a single post typically gets a couple of shares, you need to do more to improve engagement. Below are 10 tips you can implement to boost your Facebook shares.

1. Post Interesting Content

If you’re simply posting content for the sake of it, good luck getting any shares. Post interesting content. No one wants to be the one sharing boring content. Moreover, Facebook’s algorithm determines what people see on their newsfeeds. If your content is boring, engagement will be nil.

2. Post Content that Resonates With Your Fans

Understand your audience and what makes them tick. Find out how your fans feel about specific topics. One mistake most businesses make is posting controversial content to get engagement. However, if fans don’t resonate with the content, you won’t convert any of them to customers. Even worse, you’ll lose some of them.

3. Proper Timing is Critical

It’s important to know the time the majority of your audience is online. The best time to post content is between 8am – 9am and 5pm – 8pm local time. If you post in the middle of the day, people may be busy at work or school, and engagement will be low. Check Facebook Insights to know the best times to post.

4. Go Easy on Posting

Posting frequently helps your followers keep up with your brand. However, if you are posting too frequently, you’re likely to bore your audience. The last thing fans want is their newsfeed splashed with updates from your page. Go easy on posting and keep updates to a maximum of three a day.

5. Avoid Being Too Niche

Your content should appeal to the majority of your audience. Avoid topics that are too niche as they will dilute your page’s visibility. The Facebook algorithm shows content based on the engagement generated. Content that does not generate engagement is filtered out from newsfeeds.

6. Define Your Target Audience

Make sure you define your page’s target audience to improve the likelihood of generating engagement from your posts. When your audience sees posts they’ are interested in, they’ll like or share them. Make sure the content you post is entertaining or helps improve the life of your followers.

7. Build Your Facebook Page Following

Sometimes, engagement may be low for one simple reason: there aren’t enough eyeballs on a post. This usually happens when your page has a small following. Rather than post continuously and hope for more engagement, focus on increasing your page’s followers first.

8. Post Unique and Diverse Content

Your content should be diverse to encourage engagement. Different types of content will elicit various reactions from your followers. Experiment with various types of content such as video, text posts, and images and check their engagement

9. Check Your Posting Days

Know which days your audience is active on Facebook and post content then. Depending on your business, you may find the majority of your fans are not active during the weekends. If this is so, any content posted during the weekend will result in a low number of shares.

10. Be the First to Share

No one wants to share outdated info or info that’s already been shared. Be proactive in looking for content that will excite your audience and be the first one to share.

Which strategies have you found effective in improving your Facebook shares?

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[Infographic] Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter 315

Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter 315
This informative infographic, Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, comes to us from our friends at Salesforce.com. If you are in business and hustling for sales, then you need to be on social media to uncover the treasure trove of clients. Sales searches on social media platforms like Linkedin, Facebook  and Twitter allow you to narrow down your searches to deliver an ultra-specific pitch.

Learn some tips using this Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook

The advanced search abilities allow you to search for your specific audience so that you don’t have to sift through hundreds of profiles. You can search for “Groups liked by women interested in Salesforce in Portland”.

Linkedin

On this professional platform, you can perform cross-reference searches and then save them for your sales team to use as a quality leads reference.

Twitter

This platform is great for finding customers. You can search words, people, places, and names mentioned in tweets that are common in your target customer base.

Sales Search Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

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How to Get the Maximum Facebook Ad Results with Minimal Ad Management

Maximum Facebook Ad Results with Minimal Ad Management 315

Maximum Facebook Ad Results with Minimal Ad Management 315

Not everyone has vast resources to spend when it comes to social media marketing. One has to balance quality with cost. Quality content creation, strategic paid media support, and community management are all examples of the resources that make a difference in the performance of your social media effort. Yet, those resources are costly.

For the business struggling to decide how to proceed with limitations, there are better ways to run efficient social media campaigns while maximizing ROI. Facebook is an example of how to implement strategies to run better campaigns.

Choose Wisely, Choose Smart

It can be frustrating trying to keep up with the constant changes Facebook makes. Every day, there is a press release about a coming ad module or algorithm. It’s tempting to keep a constant vigil for updates while taking each new feature out for a spin to see how ad tools perform.

Here’s where choosing wisely comes into play. One does not need to try every ad module. It is better to choose only the modules that will be the most useful for the needs of the business. For example, Facebook’s carousel feature gives one the ability to use one unit to display a variety of messages. However, this conflicts with the business’s previous need to gain exposure for a single message while driving subscriptions.

This situation calls for the use of options such as post promotion or lead ads instead of the carousel. The carousel may be better aesthetically, but the former options are likely to be the most effective use of money. In this case, experimentation with different ad formats can come after the business needs are met.

Quality Over Quantity

It is easy to churn out content in hopes that it’ll reach the intended audience. But this isn’t the best strategy for communicating with the audience. Quality content that comes less frequently and forms stronger bonds with targeted readers trumps content that is quickly produced yet people continually bounce off it.

After they are created, posts need to promoted. It usually only takes 90 minutes for a post to reach the maximum natural organic reach. After organic reach, a boosted post lets the post reach more people.

Posts that promote interaction are ones that reach the most people. A post- specific, simple message inviting Facebook users to interact with posts gets the buzz going. As more users share, like, and comment on posts, micro-stories are created and increase the organic reach of the post.

Targeting

Aside from boosting a post to gain more reach, one can use Facebook’s Ads Manager to target specific audiences. Money can be spent on a specific group rather than the larger masses.

Targeting increases efficiency which can be measured by watching the CPM (cost per thousand people reached). A low CPM combined with the right audience size means that the ad spending will be effective and kept in check.

Test and Optimize

After implementing these guidelines, further testing can boost efficiency. Determining which posts are the better performing posts can prevent spending money on weaker posts. Smaller budgets can be used with smaller audiences with the better posts garnering greater budget shares.

Create a Scaled Ad Plan

Ad plans should be flexible enough to change with seasons, years, and fluctuations in resources and budgets. Scaled plans provide room for planning and budgeting according to business needs.

Facebook ad plans need to be unique to the business. Understanding objectives and making the right decisions based on them will provide the best success in time and resource management.

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